View Distance and You

[Nomad91]

I would just like to say that view distance will eat your fps. So everyone trying to get the best view distance and what not, it's not worth it. If you set the view distance to 20, you can see cars be rendered miles ahead of you, which is completely unnecessary. Try setting it to 1, and look to your left as you exit your Hove Beach Safehouse. Cant see where the road is whited out by "fog" right? So if you 8800GT guys quit whining about having to change your view distance to 20 to get "decent frames", lower it to 5 or so and watch the fps soar. If you set the view distance to 20, those cars way out of your reach that "you had to see so you can prove pc can do better than xbox" eat up so much cpu because, even though they are out of any weapons range, the driver's AI is still calculated, and using up precious power. 5 is more than enough. You can see cars from about a 1/2 mile, and that is realistic enough.

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=378702&st=0

 

Look at the first poster screenshot. All those cars are being rendered and calculated, behind buildings! So due to bad coding, and a ridiculous spawn distances at view distance at 20, you are wasting so much memory.

 

Just try view distance at 5, and look how far you can see. It's more than enough. The max draw distance for GTA SA isnt even equal to 1 in GTA IV, and we got along fine,

 

Just try it, than post you average fps from fraps benchmark (just driving around Star Junction for a minute) Set your usual view distance/vehicle density, then set the View distance to 5, and post your fps.

 

Tomorrow I will post screenshots comparing View distance of 5 and of 20, and point out what is causing the bad performance at high view distances.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Boostaa]

Wrong. Those cars are always drawn even if you are at 0 view distance. When you get close you will notice they fade away and there will be nothing there at all.

[nitro_hedgehog]

the benchmark seems better coded than the rest of the game....

[CharmingCharlie]

 

Look at the first poster screenshot. All those cars are being rendered and calculated, behind buildings! So due to bad coding, and a ridiculous spawn distances at view distance at 20, you are wasting so much memory. 

 

Just try view distance at 5, and look how far you can see. It's more than enough. The max draw distance for GTA SA isnt even equal to 1 in GTA IV, and we got along fine,

 

Just try it, than post you average fps from fraps benchmark (just driving around Star Junction for a minute) Set your usual view distance/vehicle density, then set the View distance to 5, and post your fps.

 

Tomorrow I will post screenshots comparing View distance of 5 and of 20, and point out what is causing the bad performance at high view distances.

 

Thank you for your time.

Erm you do realise the console version has a draw distance of 20 don't you ? So basically what you just recommended was this "if you have a graphics card twice as powerful as the 360/PS3 then reduce the draw distance to 4 times less than that of the console". Now do you get the idea why people are bitching so much about this game ?

[Nomad91]

 

Wrong. Those cars are always drawn even if you are at 0 view distance. When you get close you will notice they fade away and there will be nothing there at all.

As I have stated before, these cars are rendered even when you can't see them, so resources are thrown away for something you can even interact with.Who cares if you blow up a car, and peds on the next block over you cant see go "Oh my god and explosion!" and run away, it's such a waste. Also I remember reading somewhere the AI distance could be adjusted, which I assume is View Distance, because that determines how far thing spawn.

 

Yes Charlie, I do understand, but I would rather have a lower view distance and be able to push better settings, like shadow density, and other visual effects. I know we intended to prove the PC could outperform the console and crush the fanboys, but let's face the facts, until they overhaul the code, and optimize the game better, we wont beat the console without some heavy artillery.

 

But you guys do see my reasoning right? If getting more than 25 fps (which is kinda smooth, and completely playable) is an issue, drop your view distance a bit.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Nomad91

[Colis]

That sucks to have to do that because I have mine set at 45 and it runs great and I can see stuff very far away.

 

q6600 2.4Ghz

8800GTS 512MB

4GB RAM

XP

[Vicetopia]

That sucks to have to do that because I have mine set at 45 and it runs great and I can see stuff very far away.

 

q6600 2.4Ghz

8800GTS 512MB

4GB RAM

XP

Gee, THANKS for sharing!

Do you have any other useless comments to make?

[Nemon]

That sucks to have to do that because I have mine set at 45 and it runs great and I can see stuff very far away.

 

q6600 2.4Ghz

8800GTS 512MB

4GB RAM

XP

My rig exactly, and I'm getting between 30 and 33...

[Boostaa]

Wrong. Those cars are always drawn even if you are at 0 view distance. When you get close you will notice they fade away and there will be nothing there at all.

As I have stated before, these cars are rendered even when you can't see them, so resources are thrown away for something you can even interact with.Who cares if you blow up a car, and peds on the next block over you cant see go "Oh my god and explosion!" and run away, it's such a waste. Also I remember reading somewhere the AI distance could be adjusted, which I assume is View Distance, because that determines how far thing spawn.

 

Yes Charlie, I do understand, but I would rather have a lower view distance and be able to push better settings, like shadow density, and other visual effects. I know we intended to prove the PC could outperform the console and crush the fanboys, but let's face the facts, until they overhaul the code, and optimize the game better, we wont beat the console without some heavy artillery.

 

But you guys do see my reasoning right? If getting more than 25 fps (which is kinda smooth, and completely playable) is an issue, drop your view distance a bit.

Way to miss the point. Those cars you are talking about ARE RENDERED WHETHER THE DRAW DISTANCE IS AT 0 OR 100.